Video: Pufferfish Scares Away Otter

An otter attempts to make a meal of a pufferfish in this video. This National Geographic video shows the fish using its famed balloon technique to inflate its body. The otter eventually gives up on the fish and swims away. Had the otter succeeded in eating the pufferfish, it probably would been a fatal mistake. National Geographic says most pufferfish contain the deadly poison tetrodotoxin, which is up to 1,200 times more poisonous than cyanide.

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Nina Sen

Nina Sen is a frequent contributor to Live Science’s Life’s Little Mysteries series: an exploration and explanation of our world’s phenomena, both natural and man-made. She also writes astronomy photo stories for Live Science's sister site Space.com.